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Another practice spin, another pole for Busch

LONG POND, Pa. -- Kurt Busch has found a qualifying methodology that works -- even if it's a bit unconventional.

Busch won the pole for Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway after spinning his No. 22 Dodge in Friday's practice and doing enough damage to force the use of a backup car.

5-Hour Energy 500

Lineup

Pos.

Driver

Speed

Time

2.

Paul Menard

171.422

52.502

3.

Jeff Gordon

171.350

52.524

4.

Denny Hamlin

171.174

52.578

5.

Regan Smith

171.165

52.581

With only 10 laps of practice time on the backup, Busch toured the 2.5-mile triangular track in 52.454 seconds (171.579 mph) in Saturday's time trials to win his second consecutive Coors Light pole award and the 14th of his career.

* Out Front with Miss Coors Light: Rachel chats with Kurt

That was a week after Busch spun in Friday practice and won the pole in a Saturday qualifying session at Kansas Speedway.

Even though Busch has used the spin-to-win approach for the past two weeks, he'd prefer not to make a habit of it.

"It's a matter of knowing where the edge is -- but not stepping over it," Busch said. "[Friday], honestly, I missed my shift point, and it got me into trouble. Just trying new things -- changing the rear gear, changing the transmission, just being in a different zone of elements and changes.

"Normally, in the last three years, we haven't messed with gears at all. So it was cool to do that and mess with it, and it bit me, but [Saturday] I went right back after it. I was aggressive, and I used the same procedure I was using [Friday] in practice to get the pole [Saturday]."

Busch wrecked his primary car two laps into Friday's second practice session. By then, his crew had made significant adjustments to the No. 22 Dodge. So when the backup car rolled out of the hauler, Busch's crew had to work like madmen to install the same changes in the backup.

"This 22 crew, the 2 car guys [of teammate Brad Keselowski], everybody back at the shop, the fab guys here -- what an effort," said Steve Addington, crew chief for the 22. "When we unloaded the backup car, we had made so many changes during practice with the primary car [that] we didn't get a lot of track time with the backup.

"The work they did to get this car ready was awesome. To lay down a lap like that is pretty impressive -- and that guy that sits behind the steering wheel isn't too damn bad, either."

Because there was a consistent cloud cover over the track throughout the session, there was little difference in track temperature and grip from beginning to end.

"We really thought it would rain, so we posted a good lap in practice, which made us go out late," said Menard, the 43rd of 44 drivers to make a qualifying attempt. "When you look at hourly forecasts, it was 70 degrees from start to finish, so the track conditions didn't change a lot.

"It might have gotten a little bit hotter, but I think we got a little bit of cloud cover right at the end of qualifying, so that probably helped."

Mike Skinner crashed during his qualifying run and failed to make the 43-car field.

Notes-n-Nuggets

• Kurt Busch's second consecutive pole gives him 14 in 378 career Cup Series starts.

• It's the second time in Kurt Busch's career he has claimed back-to-back poles. The previous time was in 2006 (Bristol and California).

• It's Kurt Busch's first Pocono pole in 21 starts on the Tricky Triangle, though he has finished 13th or better in his past eight races there.

• Kurt Busch is the eighth different pole winner in the past eight Pocono races which held qualifying.

• Kurt Busch joins Carl Edwards and Juan Montoya as the only drivers to score two poles in 2011.

• Kurt Busch has won just once from the pole -- Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2002.

• This was the third consecutive pole for Penske Racing; the last time the team accomplished that was in 2007 at Charlotte, Dover and Pocono.

• Paul Menard (second) scored his best Pocono start in nine races; his previous best was 17th in June 2008.

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